and prompt, and accurate in the execution, of mechanism and workmanship, for purposes in science, arts, manufactures, navigation, and agriculture. Rittenhouse's planetarium, Franklin's electrical conductor, Godfrey's quadrant improved by Hadley, Rumsey's and Fitch's steam-engines, Leslie's rod pendulum and other horological inventions, the construction of ships, the New-England whale-boat, the construction of flour mills, the wire-cutter and bender for card makers, Folsom's and Brigg's machinery for cutting nails out of rolled iron, the Philadelphia dray with an inclined plane, Mason's engine for extinguishing fire, the Connecticut steeple clock, which is wound up by the wind, the Franklin fireplace, the Rittenhouse stove, Anderson's threshing machine, Rittenhouse's instrument for taking levels, Donaldson's hippopotamos and balance lock, and Wynkoop's underlators, are a few of the numerous examples.

H. Decline of Manufactures, 17951

The decline of manufactures a few years after the publication of Hamilton's report, for the reasons already cited, is evident from the tone of Winterbotham's comment, which discusses the expediency of encouraging them.

We now come to the subject of manufactures, the expediency of encouraging of which in the United States, was not long since deemed very questionable, but the advantages of which, appear at this time. to be generally admitted. The embarrassments which have obstructed the progress of their external trade with European nations, have led them to serious reflections on the necessity of enlarging the sphere of their domestic commerce; the restrictive regulations which in foreign markets have abridged the vent of the increasing surplus of their agricultural produce, have served to beget in them an earnest desire, that a more extensive demand for that surplus may be created at home: And the complete success which has rewarded manufacturing enterprise, in some valuable branches, conspiring with the promising symptoms which attend some less mature essays in others, justify a hope, that the obstacles to the growth of this species of industry are less formidable than they were apprehended to be; and that it is not difficult to find, in its further extension, a full indemnification for any external disadvantages, which are or may be experienced, as well as an accession of resources, favourable to national independence and safety.

1 An Historical, Geographical, Commercial, and Philosophical View of the American United States. By W. Winterbotham (London, 1795), I, 293.

I. Domestic Manufactures in the Back Country, 1807 1

In those sections of the country which, by reason of their distance from a market, were unable to share in the trade with Europe and receive English manufactures in return for their agricultural staples, domestic manufactures persisted. In fact there was very little change in the back districts of the country from colonial conditions.

While agriculture is so much attended to, and the means of engaging in it so easy, it is not surprising that few direct their attention to manufactures. Some years ago a cotton manufactory was established near Statesborough [South Carolina], which bid fair to rise into consideration. It was, however, soon perceived that the price of labour was too great to permit its goods to stand any competition with those of similar qualities imported from Great Britain: consequently the proprietors were obliged to discontinue their operations. A numerous population and scarcity of lands must first be experienced in a country before its inhabitants will resort to manufactures, while a more eligible mode of subsistence exists. In the upper country, however, necessity has obliged the inhabitants to provide for their respective wants from their own resources, in consequence of the difficulty and expense of conveying bulky articles from the sea-coast to the interior. The traveller there soon becomes accustomed to the humming music of the spinning-wheel and the loom. Cottons and woollens of various descriptions are made in sufficient quantities for domestic use; and if we except the articles of salt and sugar, the people in the upper parts of the state may be considered independent of foreign support; for carpenters, smiths, masons, tanners, shoemakers, sadlers, hatters, millwrights, and other tradesmen, are conveniently situated throughout the country; and the materials necessary for their respective professions are met with in abundance.

II. CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE

A. American Characteristics, 18162

The characterizations of American abilities and manners during this formative period are as varied as the experiences of the various writers. Brissot was charmed with the simplicity of morals and lack of poverty; Michaux comments on the

1 Travels through Canada, and the United States of North America, in the Years 1806, 1807, & 1808. By John Lambert (2d edition, London, 1814), II, 211-2. 2 America and her Resources. By John Bristed (London, 1818), 431-7.

prosperity of the people, while Weld complains of their lack of manners. Probably there was truth in each of these impressions. Bristed mingles praise and blame in a fairly impartial manner.

There is no striking difference in the general deportment and appearance of the great body of Americans in the towns, from Norfolk in Virginia, to Madison in Indiana. The same well-looking, welldressed, tall, stout men, appear every where pretty much at their ease, shrewd and intelligent, and not too industrious. When asked why they do not employ themselves? they answer, "we live in freedom, we need not work like the English;" as if idleness itself were not the worst species of slavery. In the country are to be found several backwoodmen, who are savage and fierce, and view newcomers as intruders. They, however, must quickly yield to the rapid growth of civilization. The great body of the western settlers are, beyond all comparison, superior to the European farmers and peasantry in manners and habits, in physical capacity, and abundance, and above all, in intelligence and political independence.

The activity and enterprise of the Americans far exceed those of any other people. Travellers continually are setting out on journeys of two or three thousand miles, by boats, on horses, or on foot, without any apparent anxiety or deliberation. Nearly a thousand persons every summer pass down the Ohio as traders or boatmen, and return on foot; a distance by water of seventeen hundred, by land, of a thousand miles. . . .

Learning, taste, and science, of course, have not yet made much headway in the west; their reading is, in general, confined to newspapers and political pamphlets, a little history, and less religion; but their intellects are keen, vigorous, and active.

...

The high wages of labour, the abundance of every kind of manual and mechanical employment, the plenty of provisions, the vast quantity and low price of land, all contribute to produce a healthy, strong, and vigorous population. Four-fifths of our people are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and the great majority of these are proprietors of the soil which they cultivate. In the intervals of toil their amusements consist chiefly of hunting and shooting, in the woods, or on the mountains; whence they acquire prodigious muscular activity and strength. . . .

Thus the people of the United States possess, in an eminent degree, the physical elements of national greatness and strength. Add to these, the general prevalence of elementary instruction, which enables the great mass of the people to develope their natural faculties and

powers, and capacitates them for undertaking any employment, success in which depends upon shrewdness, intelligence, and skill; whence their singular ingenuity in mechanical and manual operations, and their sound understanding, enterprise, and perseverance in the practical concerns of life. And to crown all, the political sovereignty of the nation residing in the people, gives them a personal confidence, self-possession, and elevation of character, unknown and unattainable in any other country, and under any other form of government; and which renders them quick to perceive, and prompt to resent and punish any insult offered to individual or national honour. Whence in the occupations of peace, and the achievements of war, the Americans average a greater aggregate of effective force, physical, intellectual, and moral, than ever has been exhibited by a given number of any other people, ancient or modern. Individuals, in other countries, may, and do exhibit as much bodily activity and strength, as much intellectual acuteness and vigour, as much moral force and elevation, as can be shown forth by any American individuals; but no country can display such a population, in mass, as are now quickening the United States with their prolific energy, and ripening fast into a substance of power, every movement of which will soon be felt in its vibrations to the remotest corners of the earth....

There are, however, drawbacks upon the high elements of national greatness above enumerated, to be found in some of our political and social institutions. For example, slavery demoralizes the southern, and those of the western states, which have adopted this execrable system. Lotteries pervade the middle, southern, and western states, and spread a horribly increasing mass of idleness, fraud, theft, falsehood, and profligacy throughout all the classes of our labouring population. . . . Our favourite scheme of substituting a state prison for the gallows is a most prolific mother of crime. During the severity of the winter season, its lodgings and accommodations are better than those of many of our paupers, who are thereby incited to crime in order to mend their condition. And the pernicious custom of pardoning the most atrocious criminals, after a short residence in the state-prison, is continually augmenting our flying squadrons of murderers, house-breakers, foot-pads, forgers, highway robbers, and swindlers of all sorts.

Our state insolvent laws, likewise (for we are too patriotic to permit Congress to pass an uniform bankrupt law, that might compel our merchants to pay their foreign creditors), acts as a perpetual bounty for dishonesty and fraud.

...

The poor-law system, as an awful encouragement to pauperism and profligacy, requires no further comment. With the exception of forgery, in the ingenuity and audacity of which our native Americans far surpass all other people, and for which our state-prisons do not afford even a palliative, much less a remedy, the foreigners and free blacks are the most numerous and atrocious of our criminals. . .

The prevailing vice throughout the Union, excepting New-England, is immoderate drinking; encouraged doubtless by the relaxing heats of the climate, in the southern, middle, and western states, by the high wages of labour, and by the absence of all restriction, in the shape of excise, or internal duty. Not only our labourers generally, but too many of our farmers, merchants, and other classes of the community, are prone to a pernicious indulgence in spirituous liquors.

As Michaux shows here, not merely were money or nominal wages high, but real wages, or wages measured by the commodities which could be purchased with them, were even higher. Under these circumstances the position of the laborer was a fortunate one, and his standard of living was high.

The articles manufactured at Lexinton are very passable, and the speculators are ever said to make rapid fortunes, notwithstanding the extreme scarcity of hands. This scarcity proceeds from the inhabitants giving so decided a preference to agriculture, that there are very few of them who put their children to any trade, wanting their services in the field. The following comparison will more clearly prove this scarcity of artificers in the western states: At Charleston in Carolina, and at Savannah in Georgia, a cabinet-maker, carpenter, mason, tinman, tailor, shoemaker, &c. earns two piastres [dollars] a day, and cannot live for less than six per week; at New York and Philadelphia he has but one piastre, and it costs him four per week. At Marietta, Lexinton, and Nasheville, in Tenessea, these workmen earn from one piastre to one and a half a day, and can subsist a week with the produce of one day's labour. Another example may tend to give an idea of the low price of provisions in the western states. The boarding house, where I lived during my stay at Lexinton passes for one of the best in the town, and we were profusely served at the rate of two piastres per week. I am informed that living is equally

1 Travels to the Westward of the Allegany Mountains. By F. A. Michaux (London, 1805), 124–5.